National Liberty Museum Hosts Philly’s First Glass Pipe Exhibit

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) — It’s been billed as the first glass pipe show in a museum setting, held in “The Treachery of Images” exhibit at the National Liberty Museum in Old City.

Photo Credit: John McDevitt

There are about 50 hand and water pipes in the exhibit created by many local glass artists. One piece is valued at $250,000.

Many of the pieces are functional, like a chess set where the individual game pieces are pipes, a sea creature that comes apart with tentacles made of green glass pipes, as well as many bongs shaped as animals.

The museum’s glass director, Meegan Coll, said, “We are asking the viewer to look at this as art. That these are sculptures worthy of being in a museum.”

Meegan Coll the museum’s glass director Credit: John McDevitt

“We are a museum of freedom and self expression and tolerance, and so we want to show that people should just come and see people’s different expressions of art and celebrate it,” she added.

The Treachery of Images exhibit is at the National Liberty Museum through May 7, and is free with admission.